Exeter's Joe Scheidler, center, tries to get a shot off as Manchester Central's Joey Martin, left, and Jon Martin try to defend during the championship game of the 51st Queen City Invitational Basketball Tournament hosted at Manchester Memorial High School on Saturday night. (Mark Bolton/Union Leader)

H.S. Basketball: Central wins QCIBT crown

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MANCHESTER - The Exeter High School boys' basketball team put up a good fight Saturday night, but not good enough to knock out Manchester Central.

Central received a game-high 21 points from junior guard Brett Hanson and beat Exeter 66-53 in the Queen City Invitational Basketball Tournament's championship game at Manchester Memorial High School. Hanson scored 105 points in three tournament games.

.It was Central's 24th QCIBT title. Central has a 24-7 record in the tournament's championship game.

Central led 17-13 after one quarter and 31-27 at halftime, then increased its lead to 10 points, 48-38, by outscoring Exeter 17-11 in the third. Exeter was within five early in the fourth, but failed to get any closer...Senior point guard Zack Holler scored 18 to lead Exeter, which beat Bedford and Merrimack to reach the title game. The Blue Hawks were seeking their second QCIBT title. Exeter won the tournament in 2007.

Trinity 64, Merrimack 36:Senior forward Carmen Giampetruzzi and junior forward Luke Testa each scored a team-high 12 points to help the Pioneers take third place in the Queen City Invitational Basketball Tournament...Trinity was in control throughout the contest. The Pioneers led 19-12 after one quarter and 35-20 at halftime. Merrimack was held to 16 points in the second half.

Merrimack's Shayne Bourque, a 6-foot-5 senior center, led all scorers with 14. The Tomahawks received eight points from junior guard Austin Franzen and seven from senior guard Eric Gendron.

Weaver 87, Memorial 56:It's probably safe to say that Manchester Memorial didn't go all-out to win its game against Weaver High School of Hartford, Conn...Memorial coach Jack Quirk elected to get some of his younger players some seasoning during his team's final tournament game, and Weaver posted an 87-56 victory.

Weaver led 30-10 after one quarter, 56-19 at halftime and 71-34 entering the the fourth..."The goal in a consolation game is not necessarily to win, it's to see what some kids can do - and to make clear what they can and can't do," Quirk said. "We played scared in the first half. For whatever reason they intimidated us..."It's very easy to mail in the second half when you're down 30. That was our goal at halftime - to win the second half. And I think we did."

Weaver, the Class S runner-up in Connecticut last season, entered the QCIBT with a 1-2 record and went 2-1 in tourney play. The Beavers opened with a loss to Merrimack, but came back to beat Bedford on Friday..."The reason we came here was to face some size," Weaver coach Charles Silvan said. "We needed to play against some big kids to prepare us for our league."

Memorial, which beat Exeter 68-48 in last year's QCIBT championship game, fell to 1-3 overall (0-1 in Division I). Memorial lost to Trinity and then beat Manchester West...Memorial has a 45-48 record in the tournament, which is in its 51st year.

West 49, Bedford 45:West used a 9-2 spurt midway through the final quarter to pick up its first victory of the season. The Blue Knights improved to 1-4 overall (0-2 in Division I)...Three West players scored in double figures: senior guard Richard Shout (13), junior forward Alfred Nyonee (12) and sophomore center Keenan Caron (10).

It was a 33-33 game with 4:58 to play, but West took the lead for good by scoring nine of the next 11 points. Bedford pulled within two points, 47-45, with 20.2 seconds left, but West sealed the victory when Nyonee made a layup with six seconds to play...Freshman forward Colby Gendron led Bedford with nine points. The Bulldogs received seven points from sophomore forward Josh Koehler.

The loss dropped Bedford's record to 0-5 overall (0-2 in Division I)...rbrown@unionleader.com..